Destiny 2 Season of Opulence patch notes: those nasty nerfs are here

A few weeks ago Bungie announced big changes to many of Destiny 2's most popular pinnacle and exotic weapon and armour pieces. The community was not happy, but maybe the addition of a new raid (in a few hours) and the new Menagerie activity can distract from the sandbox update.

The patch notes lead with the nerfs and some archetype buffs mentioned in a previous Bungie blog post. Ace of Spades no longer two-taps in Crucible while buffed by the One-Eyed Mask's vengeance perk. Bounce projectiles from Sleeper Simulant do less damage (I look forward to finding the raid cupboard boss this nerf is aimed at). The notorious Whisper sniper rifle no longer summons ammo out of the ether on repeat precision shots.

Most painfully, Crucible stalwarts Luna's Howl and Not Forgotten will fire slower than they did just hours ago.

There are some sweeteners in here. Fusion rifles are getting a leg up (hooray for Telesto). Jötunn will kill faster in PvE and swords are getting more ammo and a significant rework to damage output—will they ever be worth taking over a nice shottie though?

There are plenty of progression changes. Gunsmith bounties give us more ways to get enhancement cores, which is something the community has wanted for a while. This season's poster-bot, Benedict 99-40, has moved to the Annex in the Tower. Pursuits have moved to the director and we can pursue 63 at a time now, which ought to help a consistently annoying aspect of Destiny 2's UI. The largely-despised Eververse store has received a UI overhaul as well.

Check out the full update 2.5.0.1 changelist for all the information and read the latest This Week at Bungie for a summary of seasonal changes the devs have covered in recent blog posts. If you're jumping in today, use our Season of Opulence preparation guide to get a head start on levelling.

Part of the UK team, Tom was with PC Gamer at the very beginning of the website's launch—first as a news writer, and then as online editor until his departure in 2020. His specialties are strategy games, action RPGs, hack ‘n slash games, digital card games… basically anything that he can fit on a hard drive. His final boss form is Deckard Cain.